England and the War eBook

Most of us will not live to see it, for our recovery
from this disease will be long and troublesome, but
the War will do great things for us. It will
make a reality of the British Commonwealth, which until
now has been only an aspiration and a dream.
It will lay the sure foundation of a League of Nations
in the affection and understanding which it has promoted
among all English-speaking peoples, and in the relations
of mutual respect and mutual service which it has
established between the English-speaking peoples and
the Latin races. Our united Rolls of Honour make
the most magnificent list of benefactors that the world
has ever seen. In the end, the War may perhaps
even save the soul of the main criminal, awaken him
from his bloody dream, and lead him back by degrees
to the possibility of innocence and goodwill.

SHAKESPEARE AND ENGLAND

Annual Shakespeare Lecture of the British Academy,
delivered July 4, 1918

There is nothing new and important to be said of Shakespeare.
In recent years antiquaries have made some additions
to our knowledge of the facts of his life. These
additions are all tantalizing and comparatively insignificant.
The history of the publication of his works has also
become clearer and more intelligible, especially by
the labours of Mr. Pollard; but the whole question
of quartos and folios remains thorny and difficult,
so that no one can reach any definite conclusion in
this matter without a liberal use of conjecture.

I propose to return to the old catholic doctrine which
has been illuminated by so many disciples of Shakespeare,
and to speak of him as our great national poet.
He embodies and exemplifies all the virtues, and most
of the faults, of England. Any one who reads and
understands him understands England. This method
of studying Shakespeare by reading him has perhaps
gone somewhat out of vogue in favour of more roundabout
ways of approach, but it is the best method for all
that. Shakespeare tells us more about himself
and his mind than we could learn even from those who
knew him in his habit as he lived, if they were all
alive and all talking. To learn what he tells
we have only to listen.

I think there is no national poet, of any great nation
whatsoever, who is so completely representative of
his own people as Shakespeare is representative of
the English. There is certainly no other English
poet who comes near to Shakespeare in embodying our
character and our foibles. No one, in this connexion,
would venture even to mention Spenser or Milton.
Chaucer is English, but he lived at a time when England
was not yet completely English, so that he is only
half-conscious of his nation. Wordsworth is English,
but he was a recluse. Browning is English, but
he lived apart or abroad, and was a tourist of genius.
The most English of all our great men of letters,
next to Shakespeare, is certainly Dr. Johnson, but